Rifkind is soooo doomed to fail, as Guido has said from the beginning. He is now going about reminding people that he is the same age as David Davis (57, Rifkind is actually 59), David Cameron is 38 and Tony Blair is 52.

So the old Watsonian Scottish toff, who looks like Krusty-the-Clown, is now keen to emphasise that he is a young man for the 21st Century Party as much as Cameron is keen to emphasise his experience of, err, erm.. drafting press releases. Rifkind willl be 63 come the next election, which is the same age as Howard was when he lost the last election.